GULLANE, Scotland — Martin Laird was at home in Scotland, closing in on the lead at the British
Open.Then it all went wrong.

His mess at Muirfield began with a 2-iron that strayed into nasty, yellow rough right of the
fairway. After a couple of hacks — and a couple of penalty shots — he staggered off with a
quintuple-bogey 9.

And that wasn’t even the worst of his forgettable day yesterday. Walking up the 16th fairway, he
was informed that an additional shot was being added to his score for failing to alert all the
right people when he moved his ball in the rough on the 10th hole to identify it.

“To say that deflated me, I think would be an understatement,” Laird said.

He ended his long day with a 10-over-par 81 and is 12 shots out of the lead.

“Every time I hit a shot that could go one way, it went the other,” Laird said.

‘Mechanic’ sputters

Miguel Angel Jimenez likes to relax with a good cigar and a glass of wine. He probably needed
something a little stronger after the third round.

“The Mechanic” played solidly over the first two rounds and went into yesterday with a
one-stroke lead. But he plummeted from contention with a 6-over 77.

This one started badly — four bogeys in the first eight holes — and didn’t improve much. Still
within striking distance of the leaders, Jimenez played the final five holes in 4 over. He took
double-bogey at the 16th, needing two swings to escape a pot bunker. At the 17th, he lipped out a
3-footer for par.

Attendance down

Despite flawless weather, the crowds at Muirfield are noticeably smaller than the last time the
British Open came here in 2002.

The R&A reported attendance for the first three days of the tournament, as well as for the
practice. The turnout was slightly higher for practice — a total of 31,320 turned out, but the
higher-priced tournament tickets haven’t been as much in demand as 11 years ago.

The opening-round crowd was 23,393, a significant drop from 30,620 in ’02. The numbers were
pretty much the same the next two days. At Muirfield’s previous Open, the crowds were 34,479 for
the second round, 33,212 for the third.

Also noticeable: the number of empty seats at the 18th hole when Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods
arrived. Even the BBC commentators noted that plenty of fans headed home early, despite two of the
most popular players contending for the lead.

No one can blame the weather for the smaller turnouts. It has been sunny all week, with
temperatures in the 70s.